Your Focus Area Committee is excited to announce that we are coordinating with JLSB’s Book Club to select books related to our focus area and create more opportunities for you to #SpreadYourWings and gain a deeper understanding of our Focus Area. More details to come!

In the meantime, if you are interested in some independent reading about human trafficking, we pulled together a book list that you can check out in your “spare time.” The list can be found HERE.

A couple of us Focus Area ladies have recently started reading Girls in Justice by Richard Ross. The Amazon Summary for Girls in Justice:

“… While the number of youth in the juvenile justice system has steadily declined, girls are a growing share of youth arrested, detained and committed. A rare, multidimensional look at these girls’ vulnerable lives, Girls in Justicespeaks to the unique issues they face with both hard-hitting words and Richard Ross’ evocative images. Essays from some of the top girls’ criminology scholarsand advocates in the U.S. give readers a picture of their work with young women in the system as well as cold, hard facts about the issue. As with Juvenile in Justice, the photographs are accompanied by girls’ first-person stories, as told to Ross in interviews from over 250 detention facilities across the U.S. Even for those who work with girls in the system daily, this book is sure to expand your understanding of the realities of these girls’ lives.”

Let us know if you decide to give it a read.

September 22, 2017

Interested in becoming more deeply involved with our Focus Area outside of JLSB? There are a multitude of local ways to do so! Here are some ways that you can get more hands-on right here on the Central Coast:

Sponsor a Child or Volunteer with Forever Found.

— WHEN: Ongoing

— WHAT: Forever Found partners with rescue homes in the US and abroad to aid in the prevention, rescue, and restoration of child trafficking victims. For as little as $35 per month, you can be an active part in that process. By sponsoring children rescued from trafficking, you are ensuring their daily needs, including food, clothing, and shelter are met and their education/vocational training is supplied.

— WHAT: Casa Pacifica serves abused and neglected children and adolescents, and those with severe emotional, social, behavioral, and mental health challenges. They provide a comprehensive array of state of the art services to meet the varied and complex needs of children, youth and emerging adults in their care. Volunteers who give their time and skills are welcomed in various areas on campus: tutors, teachers’ aids and activity assistants in the areas of academics, life skills, recreation and vocational training. Volunteers are required to attend one half-day training and commit to a full year of an agreed-upon volunteer schedule.

Word on the Street Facilitator training, hosted by Ventura County Probation Agency.

— WHEN: October 24th & 25th.

— WHAT: A CSEC prevention curriculum for female youth. The facilitator training is a 2-day training that is co-facilitated by Nola Brantley (developer of the training) and a psychologist. The curriculum covers the following topics: overview of CSEC; objectification and sexualization of women and girls; Risk factors for CSEC involvement; Exploiters; Healthy relationships; and Empowerment.

Some interesting developments have been brewing at the Federal Gov’t level with respect to Human Trafficking. Last week, the “Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act of 2017” (aka SESTA) was introduced on the Senate floor. The bill seeks to to amend the Communications Act of 1934 to clarify that the 1934 Act “does not prohibit the enforcement against providers and users of interactive computer services of Federal and State criminal and civil law relating to sex trafficking”. This would be a HUGE WIN in terms of being able to prosecute those who indirectly facilitate sex trafficking!!! As the Comm Act of 1934 currently stands, a layer of protection exists to shield the hosts of websites from liability for content posted by others to go after sites (such as b a c k p a g e . c o m) that have been criticized for facilitating child sex trafficking. Backpage has been using the Act of 1934 as a legal loophole to say that they weren’t ‘creating’ the content, just posting it or ‘hosting’ content others had created, which was essentially online ads for sex with minors. According to a Washington Post article, a congressional subcommittee found in January 2017 that “Backpage ‘knowingly facilitated the criminal sex trafficking of vulnerable women and young girls’ by editing ads posted by pimps to remove offensive language”. The Senator introducing the Bill, Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, was quoted as saying “For too long, courts around the country have ruled that Backpage can continue to facilitate illegal sex trafficking online with no repercussions. The Communications Decency Act is a well-intentioned law, but it was never intended to help protect sex traffickers who prey on the most innocent and vulnerable among us. This bipartisan, narrowly-crafted bill will help protect vulnerable women and young girls from these horrific crimes.” We agree, Senator!

Our Focus Area

The Junior League of Santa Barbara’s Focus Area is improving the lives of at-risk young women by educating & empowering them to reach their full potential while working to prevent exploitation and injustice in our community.

Junior League of Santa Barbara, Inc.

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